>You stand before the brother of Twilight Sparkle, his royal attire is spotless compared to your worn and ragged armour. You want to rip this leather off of you but a sense decency deep in your brain tells you not to do so, but you do refuse any attempt to put your spear back in your hand. You're done with fighting, you've lost too much because of it for you to even think of raising your spear again. Finally after an untold amount of attempts of trying to put the spear in your hand the guard gives up and instead gives your spear to Shinning Armour who inspects it with great scrutiny. You look to the ground, your eyes barely registering what is going on as they fill up with tears. Your friends are dead and for what, a glorified mass murder as some sort of political campaign. You slump to the ground with tears rolling down your face, the grim of your face becomes streaked and you drop your hands before you. You let the tears stain the ground below your eyes, small mud puddles form from where your tears fell. But you don't whine in any way nor do you change your facial expression, the reason for this is that it's your cross to bear. It's your fault that they died, they lay bloodied and bruised to save you. You get a hold of your thoughts and take a deep breath, there's no point crying like a child as it would just sully your friends' memory. With a clear head you take in your surroundings and much to your dismay you have no idea where you are. You look down the way you came and you see the last bits of what few rays come down here get snuffed out by a closing door. You straighten your posture and adopt a soldier's look about you, covering your inner feelings.
Why does your spear have the town of Ponyville stamp on it?
>Shinning Armour says, his eyes narrowing and voice much more authoritative here than in the show. The voice itself takes you back for a couple of seconds but the question that it asks confuses you. It follows reason that a spear with a town stamp on it would come from that town so why is he asking you why it has Ponyville's stamp on it. Is there something you don't know about your previous possession, is it illegal to have certain town stamps on weapons or is it illegal to have town stamps. You purse your lips and furrow your brow, the telltale signs of concentration in humans. You finally give up and ready to suffer any punishment, as your answer comes from a place of ignorance.
Because it came from there.
>You say in a tepid tone, you may be able to contain your sadness but it also limits your other emotions too. Shinning Armour looks at you, his eyes scanning you like a methodical machine. You take this time to do almost the same thing to the ponies around you most of whom you disregard for now and instead you focus on the couple here, more importantly Candace as she hasn't said a word yet. Much like her husband she too is looking at you but not as thoroughly, it looks instead that she's checking certain features of you and making notes on them. What her purpose for doing so is beyond you right now but her husband seems to be finishing up his own review on you. He flares his nostrils for a second and then makes a low grunting sound from deep inside his chest, which would be frightening if he wasn't half your height and probably weighs a lot less than you too. You look into his eyes and see something that you haven't seen in a long time, hope. He must be hiding it deep inside himself but unlike you he wasn't forced to go through weeks at a time holding back some sort of emotion. You're about to question him why but you're cut off right before you can open your mouth.
How did you end up here?
>You feel two desires in your heart right now, one is to tell him everything and the other is to ignore him. If you tell him everything than you know you'll surely be free from this nightmare. But a part of you doesn't want to go, perhaps the same part that wants to ignore him you think, you want to stay here and make up for your friends' passing. The latter part is winning until you realize that they died so you could live, to maybe one day escape this repeating cycle forever. You feel a deep sense of debt, a debt that you can never repay fully, swell in your heart and you finally tell them almost everything. From when you met Fluttershy by the forest's edge, to when you were made Captain of the Ponyville guards, your first last stand ending up with your imprisonment, your travel here and your first day which includes meeting Peller and Rud, your first of many battles and the talk with Boma after it, weeks that turned into months of training and fighting, your two talks with your friends and the tip from Boma, and you end your tale with what they saw today. Once you started talking the words just came out, even if you wanted to filter parts out your mouth wouldn't let you. The world had to know what happened, even the parts you wanted to keep secret from even yourself . By the end you look at the duo in front of you, their gazes turned from one of inquiry to a more sympathetic note. You almost expect them to hug you but they thankfully do not, to be hugged now would make you burst out into hysteria.
So where's your "owner" now?
>Cadence asks, her voice sounding like that of Cypris or Cytherea with each word plucked to the sweetest string. You don't know if she did that on purpose or if she naturally sounds like that, the former brings an equation of fear to it and the latter is quite the opposite with you feeling bad for her. You internally shake your mind from this train of thought as it would only lead you astray from your goals, for now you focus on leaving this mountain and sometime into the future to revenge their deaths. You explain to Shinning Amour that you can't describe his home, the place he probably is at right now, in terms that would make sense and instead offer to lead them there. He looks at you with eyes you've seen before, a look mixed with trust and fright, and takes a moment to consult with his wife on what to do. You don't make out all of the conversation, as you weren't actively seeking to hear it, but the bits that you pick up lets you form the dialogue in your head. You used to do this at school when you were younger and at work as you got older, a nice trick to have when you don't want to listen to someone complain. The conversation boils down to what they should do when they meet your master, do they buy you from him or take you by force and at one point they discuss about working you into the peace negation but it gets quickly shot down when they figure out how that will look on paper. It finally ends and a plan is decided, they are willing to buy you from your master or if needed to take you by force. It warms your heart a little that they're willing to go to these lengths to bring you back to Equestria, though part of you resents that you won't get revenge as soon as you want it. They tell you to lead the way but first ask your name and you try to wave the question off but they are relentless, after what seems like forever you give in and tell them just to call you whatever they feel like.
How about Mauve Shadow?
>Cadence asks, her tone carrying the same sweet overtone that makes you wonder. You respond by telling her to drop the shadow part and you'll accept the name. This prospect obviously delights her and she makes a neighing sound which can only be described as the sound of a chew toy. With your name settled you lead the ponies back to the training grounds, the group itself catches more glances than you do by yourself. Then you remember the turns it took to get here from your owners house and you simply put everything in revere, taking lefts instead of rights and rights instead of lefts. The whole ordeal takes less than half an hour with the most time being taken by traffic, a cart tipped over and crowds were redirected down the path you were going. You and your group reach the house, the window curtains drawn back and it's appearance much more opulent than the last time you saw it. You raise your hand and knock on the door, you then step aside and let the duo do the talking for you. You then hear feet rush down from the staircase from the other side of the door and from the rapidity of the steps you infer that whoever is running down is expecting something important. You barely register the door opening as the only indication that a door was there was hinges on one side of the frame. You see Gilda open the door with an unusual look in her eyes and when she sees you she makes a gesture that can only mean come in. The guards that accompanied the royal couple here wait outside the door while you, Shinning Armour, and Cadence enter, the room seemingly darker than the hallway you were in not so long ago.
So, what can I do for you?
>Gilda asks, more curiosity in her voice than anything else. Shinning explains the situation to her, during which a particular phrase pops out at you it being "I, Emperor Shinning Armour, have come here to retrieve a prisoner of war from this country." You think to yourself that your simple inclusion into this world has altered events more than you think, maybe at this rate Twilight's accession into pseudodeityhood could be halted indefinitely but this is just an afterthought. It would make sense that Princess Celestia would give independence to the Crystal Empire and set the highest political position with trusted individuals, the head of her military and a fellow alicorn. By the end of Shinning's speech a question burns into the back of your skull, where are her parents? You let all the pleasantries go on and when the silence enters for a good long second you ask your question.
Dad went back to the front and died at the battle of the Broken Beak. Mom couldn't handle it and I was eventually forced by the law to put her in an asylum until further notice. Which means for at least three years and then another two at a transitory house, maybe one year under supervised living if she's volatile at the home.
>You and the couple next to you give your condolences to the young gryphon and she explains that she receives payment from the gladiator fights, which depends on a whole slew of variables. How hurt did you get, how hurt was the other fighter, how excited did the crowd seem, who technically won the fight, how large was the crowd, how many were displeased with the fight, and much more that she has forgotten. You ask if you were the sole source of income for her family and she denies rather proudly. Her sister has a well paying job and she recently got employed as a flying instructor for young gryphons, as their parents can't send them to the Equestrian flying school. You feel slightly better knowing that if you depart than you're not leaving her to starve but you have one last question, who is her sister? A sudden ruckus from outside draws the four of you to it and you see Boma punching a guard in the face while the other tries to restrain her, a sudden motion by Shinning Armour and the two guards stop. You wave to Boma and she snarls at the guards but waves back to you.
What are you doing at my home, Captain?
>Boma says, her voice asking you a question while her face becomes one of inquiry with a small part lecherous, this being more of a joking nature. Before you can answer her Shinning Armour jumps in and tells her a much shorter version of what he told Gilda earlier. She looks dumbfounded to say the least, her joking nature prior has subsided and you swear you could see tears. But you don't get a long enough look as she runs inside, pushing you out of the way along with Gilda. You all look at each other with bewilderment and Gilda excuses herself to go see what is wrong with her sister. The five of you awkwardly stand around, there's nothing really to do or say right now until Gilda comes back. Eventually she comes back down and calls you over, informing you that Boma wants to talk to you alone and she leads you upstairs to Boma's door. You knock on the door and it creaks open just a tad, letting you know that you're expected to come in. You grip the handle and open the door fully, only to see your friend crying into a greyish pillow. You walk over to her and sit on the floor near her bed, you run your hand through her feathery head and ask her what is wrong. She looks at you with tears streaming down her face and she faintly whispers to you.
...I don't want you to go...
>You resign your near emotionless face to it's natural state, letting it return to her a sad gaze. You tell her that you have to, you've given up fighting to the point you'd rather die than raise your spear again. She bursts out into another crying fit and turns her head back into her pillow, you try to calm here down by rubbing her back. It works slightly, her sobs dialing down slowly to the level it was a few minutes ago. She turns to you, this time rolling onto her side to talk to you and letting her head lay limply on her pillow. You smile and rub her cheek, murmuring sweet nothings to her in hopes she'll stop crying. She finally stops and you give her a slight smile, the corners of your mouth barely rising. Her eyelids droop to about a half way point and you assume she wore herself out with crying, that is until you try to remove your hand from her. Her claw curls around your wrist with an iron like grip and the eyes you assumed were drifting off to sleep now take on a more bedroom look. You nervously smile and try to pull your hand back but she coyly smiles and sits up in her bed, the blanket that moved covered her now slowly cascading down her body as she rises. You think you're about to break free but it's only a trap so she can grab your other wrist and with your arms under control she easily gets you on your back. If you weren't so tired from your fight than you could easily push her off but alas you are too feeble now to do so. She gets out of her bed and stands on top of you, wrists still held firmly to the ground, and she lowers her entire body onto you, her face right next to yours.
You don't have to go, you can just stay here forever! I'll have to pick up more shifts at the arena but that doesn't bother me, as long as I get to see you at home you adorable monkey. You won't have to get a job, I'll provide everything for you. The most delicious food, the freshest water, and the warmest bed, with me in it of course. And maybe if you're lucky a few chicks to raise with me, after we get married of course. What do you say my love? A kiss is all I need and I'll be yours forever...
>You're completely flustered, the surprise affection and sudden tender embrace you find yourself in right now stops you from preventing anything she does. Her eyes look at you expectantly and her body resting completely on you now. You feel her heart beating, hear her take sensual deep breaths, smell her wonderfully intoxicating scent, see her eyes glazed over with what can only be described as love, the only thing missing to complete your five senses is taste. To intertwine your tongue with hers and let your two bodies do what nature did not intend to happen. You take a deep breath in and swallow any grievances against this, you've decided.
Boma... I... I don't feel the same way you do about me... I do love you, but as... as a friend.
>Her eyes well up with tears and she forces a smile onto her face. It's obvious that she's trying to play this off before she says anything. Wipes a tear away and gets off of you, punching your arm playfully as she does this. She walks to her bed again, tail literally tucked between her legs as she gets underneath the covers. You look at her dumbfounded, one minute she's ready to literally tear your clothes off to the next minute she's putting more layers in between you and her. You rise to a sitting position near the bed and try to comfort her but she swats your hand away this time. You try again and this time when she bats your hand away you grab it, if she really wanted to you know she could've tore her claw loose. She looks at you and with the same forced smile says this in the most forced cheerful voice you've ever heard.
It's... fine I was just joking, you giant idiot...
>You know she's lying and you know that you won't leave her until you try everything to cheer her up, it's the least you can do to say goodbye. You try telling her jokes, which horribly fail, and after you've run out of jokes you go onto puns, they do worse than the jokes somehow. You try to get her to talk but she won't, she gives up the smile and goes back to crying. You try to tell her stories about lovers who weren't meant for one another, such as Romeo and Juliet, but she does manage to get out that they at least got married before they died. You try everything you can until you run out of options and you're forced to ask her what would make her happy. She turns to you, eyes slightly red from all the crying, feathers near her eyes look darker than the rest probably because they're wet with tears, and she gives you a knowing look. She honestly wants for you and her to grow old together, to do all the things that should be done along the way. You've never thought about this back home, back on Earth, with even the person you cherished most, but why are you seriously debating this in your head. You lay your hand down on her bed and make the motion for her to lay her claw on your hand, which she does with tender care. You take a deep breath and gently squeeze her claw, her eyes stop letting lose their watery assault on her face and start looking at your face. She is, if you've accurately gauged her emotions right, equally curious and afraid of what you're going to say.
Boma I wanted to let you down easy, not to horribly wreck your ambitions, but this whole thing, between me and you, would never work out. First off, I'm not good at relationships I would actually go as far to say I may be the worse dating material out there so if you expect me to be there for you always then you're hopes are going to be dashed, I'd say I would be there for you about forty percent of the time.  The next problem is that I'm not good at staying home all day for the rest of my life, more than once I'll literally run away just to explore the world as my kind does on occasion. After those problems let's get onto your idea that you'll work for two or more, that won't happen because of two things one being that I wasn't raised to be lazy it isn't in my nature and the other problem is what happens if you get fired, does the family starve while you look for work. That leads to the next piece of this puzzle, we literally can not have children together our biology is so vastly different that I don't even know where to begin describing why this is. And let's say that we somehow make a child or adopt a little bundle of joy, I'm going to let you know right now I'm a terrible parent so not only do you have to support the family by yourself, raise a child by yourself, have me run away on multiple different occasions, and let's not even get into your laws of how I become a citizen because there's no way I'm being your monkey love slave for the rest of my life. And what's the gain for you, you'll get a husband who's practically useless for your planned life. I'm sorry Boma, I truly am, but there won't be an us, at least not for a long time, but I do want to be your friend, you don't understand how hard it was to lose two in one day. Suffice to say that if you reject my token of friendship I'll literally jump in front of a speeding cart, that is how desperate I am.
>Boma looks utterly speechless, eyes wide and mouth slightly unhinged. But once she takes in what you said her expression turns to one of melancholy, thankfully no tears this time around. You don't feel too terrible about what you said as it was one of the natural conclusions to this, the other outcome would be a life of laziness and copulation which may sound appealing to the most sexually depraved but for you sounds like a dull and fruitless existence. She withdrawals her claw from your hand and leans pass you to a small nightstand. She opens the unusually intricate and ornate stand, now that it's open you can catch the glimpse of what appears to be sentimental items such as family pictures or small mementos given by people you'll never know. She leans in, blocking your view with her upper torso, and pulls out a scroll with an  tofficial looking stamp on it. She looks at you face blushing and eyes filled with some mix between longing and guilt, you take a mental guess at what she's holding.
I-I got this a few days ago... I planned on giving it to you on... on our f-first date... but well, that won't happen for a while. Now hold our your cl- hands.
>You do as she asks and you feel, and see, her place the scroll into your hands. It feels unusually thick and rigid, despite its rolled nature right now and you look at her. You're unable to express in words what she has given back to you so you instead act on an impulse, quickly leaning in and giving her a kiss on the cheek. You pull back before she could lure you into another fiasco and she her and you hastily stand up, she just looks at you not believing what you just did. You try to mutter out that your sorry and you have to go now, but what actually comes out is sorry I go now. Sorry I go now. These wicked words ring through your skull as you turn to the doorway and you make out this realm's Aphrodite Ourania looking at both of you. There's no real way to describe her expression without using terms that border on two different meanings, so instead you take a mental note of her face. Her eyes appear to be a mix of shock, curiosity, and warmness that only the Goddess of love can exude with just her eyes. They, her eyes, are mostly covered by their lids and her brows are raised to the highest they possibly could go. Her lips are curled and scrunched to resemble a more human shape, which are then parted to show the contrast of their pink glossy look to her nearly pure white teeth. You fidget about nervously for a brief burst of time but you collect yourself and start to walk to the door. Cadence leaves well before you get there and you turn your head just before you depart, catching a glimpse of Boma giving you a wink and blowing you a kiss. At least she stopped crying, you muse in your head as you hurry down the steps and outside. Which you are then greeted by the four ponies and gryphon outside who seem to be perplexed by how long you've been away for, except the alicorn who is clearly faking her companions' expression. You give the scroll, the literal embodiment of your freedom right now, to Shinning and you make eye contact with him, words are unable to effectively exchange the information a certain look can give. He takes the scroll, gives you a respectful nod, and turns to look at the two guards, his face is only describable as commanding when he bellows out.
Guards! Escort this Captain safely back to camp and when he arrives at camp protect him with your lives, until I give you further orders!
>The guards salute him, retrieve the scroll from him, and get on either side of you in such a swift, smooth motion you didn't even realize if happened until you literally feel them on either side of you. They stay at your side all the way out of the city and gryphons part to either side of the group. Maybe the sight of a bloodied creature with armed guards on either side of it provides enough motive to get out of the way. At any rate you get to the camp, which is what appears to be ten tents set up in a circular position, and you are more or less shoved into the tent of the royal couple. You stay here for what feels like weeks but is instead only six days, negotiations are a slow process to insure both parties get fair deal. During most of this time you focus on random hobbies, like sketching nature or reading whatever little bits of literature you can find. But eventually the negotiations come to a stall and both sides agree to a two week break, which for you means that you'll get out of this place for a long time. You would be dreading to walk what must be hundreds of miles of empty land but after being coup up for so long this feels like a dream, each step securing your freedom a tiny bit more in your heart. But you're not going down the path you came from and then you see why, a brand new iron road has been laid down where grass used to grow. Sitting in the gleaming Sun is a train like no other, especially back on Earth, its body is crafted out of what seems to be a solid piece of metal with reliefs carved into it. Its color is obviously tampered with as it seems to be silver, which can't be the case due to the size of train as such a price would be astronomical. You don't get to inspect the outside much longer as you're pushed into the great silvery beast. The Royals seem disappointed when you don't freak out about being inside such an advanced technology, relatively speaking of course, and you almost feel like telling them about the wonders of your world but you don't. You don't want to be held up in a tower and forced to make inventions forever like a certain person did. The train ride to the Crystal Empire takes around a day and a half, most of which you spent either sleeping or eating with you very rarely interacting with others. The ordeal is finally over and you step outside and into your new home, hopefully this time it goes better.
>A parade was obviously set in honor of Royals but you quickly became the focus point, due to your "unique" look. You've been thinking about how they, the Couple, didn't know your name, did the evacuation go terribly wrong? You're about to ask them but the parade seems to be almost over, as the castle's shadow drapes over you, and during times of war you don't want important officials in the open or not under heavy guard, too many have died for this to become an unwritten law. The guards dotted along the parade and in present company may show a calm, callous demeanour on the outside but the second the group gets inside you hear a guard sigh a deep breath of relief, you also felt it hit the back of your neck but you didn't show any ill will to the guard. The Couple on the other hand don't seem to have cared in the slightest and they offer that you join them for lunch, you politely decline as you don't feel hungry right now. They do make you take up residence in the castle and give you a detachment of ten guards to lead you there, one is there to lead and the other nine to stop you from running. The trip to your room is a winding series of crystallized corridors which seem to go on for as long as you can walk, a worrying thought you must add. You start to think about the walls around, mostly about their crystal appearance but also how they made the castle itself as engineering a massive building like this to stand on four legs would've been a nightmare. After what feels like an eternity you're corralled into a room, though calling it that is a disgrace. In the center of this room is a very large dinning table, which could hold at least twenty ponies, which has a rug underneath it to soften any marks the chairs may cause. At the end of the room is a staircase that leads to another floor, you can see the next floor as there is no ceiling in between them, and on the second floor's ceiling hangs a crystal chandelier. Along the walls of both floors entrances to other rooms, you can see inside a few down here from where you're at and know that they're not all bedrooms, and you expected the walkway above to be supported by columns, perhaps too long in the gryphon's company has you thinking about their architecture, but no such structures are there. There is actually nothing supporting the walkway and you feel a bit frightened but then you nerves calm down, this entire structure must be made in such a way that either no seems are visible or magic fused parts together. You then feel a pony brush pass you and then you see a crystallized cream color pony squeeze pass you, upon her head sits a toque and a double breasted jacket covers the front half of her body both of which are pure white. In a magical orb lays two covered dishes, which she proceeds to lay on the dinning table next to each other, and you feel another pony stand next to you but this time they wait. You turn your head and see Cadance standing next to you, smiling at you when you look at her.
Come, let's eat lunch Mauve. And while we're eating we can talk about what happened between you and your "owner".
>You smile and tell her to lead the way, while you remain collected on the outside you're freaking out on the inside. You follow her after a suitable distance has been set and while you make the trip you start to think of ways on how to brush the topic off, if all of them fails then you simply say it's your culture's way of expressing emotions too grand for words. As you sit next to the princess the dish's cover is pulled away by the chef and she floats them along her side as she leaves and the guards shut the doors behind her leaving you and the heavenly Venus in pony form. You look down at the plate below you and see a salad with what looks to have diced nuts, small cubes of pineapple, cut up cherries, and some Feta cheese sprinkled around, the lettuce that makes up the majority of the salad seems to be iceberg lettuce. A rather simple dish but upon eating some of it the quality of the parts of the dish shine through, that being said you did lower your expectations for the dish the second you saw it. But you know that eating wasn't the main reason why Cadance is here, in fact she told you why she came in the first moments.
It dawned on me, during negotiations, that your kind may not understand what exactly I am. I wasn't born this way as this pink Alicorn that you see before you now but instead a spring green earth pony. And one day Princess Celestia called me to Canterlot, which for a simple pony is unbelievable, and she told me these stories. I was still young, just turning a yearling a month ago, and I just sat at her hooves, happily listening to everything she said. I'll sum it up for you my family Cadenza, simply meaning Cadence, is the last living line of the Love God Mi Amore meaning my love. Now this is the part that gets tricky Mi Amore isn't a being in the traditional sense, it's an idea that became a physical thing that Princess Celestia called a Force and certain ponies are more or less receptive than others. The ponies who are more receptive generally come from the descendants of the last pony who was influenced by the Force, but there are rare cases of ponies being able to be influenced without having an ancestor like them. Anyways I was joined with Mi Amore, who technically died a year ago during this story, and I was transformed into an Alicorn but don't ask me about the pink part, I have no idea why I became pink. Does you have any questions about this? Because if you don't I would like to talk about what happened.
>You take in all the information thrown at you, most of which you can crudely understand, and you rub the back of your neck. You certainly don't want to talk about what happened with Boma so you start to think of questions that will take a while to answer. Hopefully from asking extensive questions you can postpone the discussion for a day, a long shot at best but a long shot is better than no shot. Like a machine your brain filters out questions that are too short, too ignorant, or too vulgar to ask anyone, let alone a being mixed with something you don't fully understand. You get a good list going in your head and you remove the obvious ones, she obviously won't live forever, she probably retains the memory of previous Mi Amores, you assume that she feels other emotions than love, et cetera. Though a certain question, mostly about your own internal references to her being this realm's Aphrodite, grinds into your brain, what does she mean by the Love God or Goddess. You ask her if being the Love Force is about spiritual love or one of the body or a mixture of the two. You explain to her that your kind used to believe that Love Gods or Goddesses were one of a lustful nature and rarely believed in spiritual love. Maybe this insight of old Human thinking and old Human religion will counterbalance any ill will because of the first part of your question, which you implied she was a lustful Love Goddess or as they would call it a Force.
Being the Force of Love, actual love, means I try to focus on, as you would call it, spiritual love. But as I'm sure you know that every encounter that turns into true love starts off as physical attraction to a certain being. But since you talked about Gods and Goddesses I'll tack on to this answer with some more information about Forces, as I didn't know if your kind worshipped Gods and Goddesses. A God or Goddess is to a Force the same way an idea is to an action, Gods and Goddesses are ideas but if a pony is a master of a certain field, let's say knowledge, then the God of Knowledge, Disciplina the Erudite, will become infused inside the pony. The resulting event will most likely transcend a pony to an Alicorn and make Disciplina a Force that can't leave this world, meaning that two possible Forces are out there in the world, if we include myself. I'm not entirely sure how much you know about our culture yet but I should also get this question out of the way while we're here, the reason why there's only so many available Forces in the world while there is technically three more than that in this era is because three of them, Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, and Discord, can't fade away. Their hosts will live, unless they are murdered or die accidentally, for entirety as they are the embodiment of the three old Gods and Goddeses. Celestia, the Goddess of Kindness and Light, Luna, the Goddess of Honor and Shadow, and Discord, God of Chaos and Mockery. The reason why they can live for eternity is because they each are a part of the highest God, Aevum the Everlasting, and since they are technically all part of the time God they are able, though they're not supposed to, halt the ageing process of living beings, including themselves. Does this make any sense to you?
>You slowly nod your head and close your eyes for a moment, you need to process internally what was said to you before you speak. You finally think, you hope, that you understand the basic structure of their religion and express your insight to the Goddess of Love. You say to her that this religion, as it's the only word to describe it, has the Time God, Aevum the Everlasting, as the most important God, with Celestia, Luna, and Discord as the next step down. She nods her head and smiles slightly at you, telling you to go on and that you're correct so far. So you continue your speech, with a more confident tone than before, and say there must be other stages to this whole affair, with her probably on one of the higher levels. She claps, or the pony equivalent to that, and gives you a hug, rewarding you for your grasp on a foreign system so fast.
You're right Mauve, there are many more tiers, if the term can be used here, to this. The third tier, after Celestia, Luna, and Discord as the second tier, is known as the Superessendam tier, with Gods and Goddess who aid in a species' survival, Love, Gathering, Defending, et cetera . Then comes the fourth tier, Societatis, with surprisingly is made up of more Gods than Goddesses but they all in some aspect help shape society, Law, Knowledge, Ownership, et cetera. The fifth tier is called the Ambigua, these Gods and Goddesses are not able to be put into certain precise categories like the other tiers and are instead clumped together into one, and if you think about the tiers like boxes on top of one another, they are usually put off to the wayside until they are fully understood and placed into the correct spot, War, Covetousness, Famine, et cetera. The sixth tier is dedicated as Minoribus and the Gods and Goddesses are seen as petty evils, such as Greed, Annoyance, Interruptions, and many more fill this tier. The seventh  tier is Malum, Gods and Goddesses in this tier are seen a evil with no redeeming qualities, Theft, Betrayal, Maiming, and other hurtful acts. Maius Malum is the eighth and last tier, Gods and Goddesses here are forbidden from being worshipped and if they become a Force than Aevum must be formed to purge time from them, in this tier lays Murder, Cannibslism, Suicide, and crimes that I will not allow to sully my mouth.
>You're about to ask the Goddess from the Superessendam a question concerning the last heavenly, or in this case not so heavenly, tier but the door to the room bursts open. A purple Alicorn frantically scans the room while two guards arrive shortly after her, who are sent away by Cadance as soon as they enter the room. The new arrival is obviously Twilight Sparkle but her general appearance has changed, she gained a tiny amount of weight that makes her seem more cute. But it isn't just her weight that has changed and it isn't because she grew wings, her general presence isn't the same. No longer is it a general curiosity mixed with a love and to use the knowledge she learn in a practical way. What now grows from her old self is a being that has an insatiable hunger for knowledge, to horde information and never to use any of it. Her eyes have no flame in them, no motivation residing in them nor any signs of happiness upon looking at you. Her mouth hangs slightly agape, yet you hear no deep breaths going in and out of those lips. Her mane, coat, and tail is obviously cleaned, as no foul odor hits your nostrils and the previously mentioned parts has no oily residue left on them, but you have an instant physical reaction, your knee literary jerks, when you think of touching her. She walks up slowly to you, her face retaining the same dead look the entire walk. She stops mere feet from you and lowers her head, you hope that seeing you has rekindled her but she simply raises her head till your eyes meet. She then trots off and shuts the doors behind herself, which you are glad she has retained some sense of awareness. You look at Candance, your face asks the question that you simply can't right now. She takes a deep breath and slowly exhales, rubbing her temples with her hooves.
You already know Twilight but what you don't know is what happened to her. Shortly after you forced the town, Ponyville, to evacuate under false pretenses things started to go wrong...
 
Twilight, do yew hear dat thumping sound?
>Applejack, one of your six best friends, whispers to you in the dead of night. You open your eyes, your vision hazy as you just woke up, and see your orange friend mere inches from your face. You're about to tell her it's nothing but her expression ruling over her face informs you that doing so will just delay the inevitable. You raise an eyebrow at her and make a show of disgruntlement but you raise your head, twitching your ears to and fro. Eventually you hear the distant sound of which your friend was speaking of, a low rumbling that seems to get closer every "thump". You rise to your four legs and motion Applejack to follow you, along your journey out of the forest the Lieutenant took the town to seek refuge from any rain that may occur at night you and Applejack stumble upon the remainder of your gang, Spike also came along. The seven of you move quietly, or as quietly as seven beings can when they can't see more than a few hooves ahead of them, to the forest's edge to where the road is. You hear Rarity gasp and faint before you even get a look at what she saw, Ponyville is surrounded by a sea of bodies and more in the air above.
I didn't know the Canterlot Guards had that many members, but what in the hay are they doing? It looks like they're throwing rocks at the town, like really big rocks.
>Rainbow Dash states out rather plainly, you feel a deep sense of profound sadness. You know what's happening to the town, Human told you but you didn't believe him, not fully anyways. You never expected him to stay and fight an entire army with a hooffull of ponies, let alone hold them off for hours. But you start to see holes in his planning, mostly about the sky but he left sections of the town open. Does he intend to lure them in?
Sugahcube, dat ain't the Canterlot Guards. Those are the Gryphons, yew can tell by the siege weapons. They always bring siege weapons as ah show of force to instill fear in thar enemies.
>Your hind legs give out under you and you barely prop yourself up with your front legs, you watch in horror as the bodies around Ponyville draw back and rush back to the town. Your friends react in very different ways, Rarity however stays knocked out. Rainbow Dash is torn between two worlds, either to go help Human in town or stay next to the rest of her friends, and she constantly flies a bit away only to fly back to her original spot, ever locked to it. Fluttershy covers her head under her front hooves and covers them with her wings, she obviously would help but her timid nature, though ideal for working with animals, stops her from moving. Pinkie openly cries with her tears damping her entire muzzle, joy is not a place for this. Applejack is the definition of mad, nostrils flaring, ears laid back, eyes like daggers, teeth bared, and her front half of her body lowered into a tackling stance, at least she's not lying about her feelings.
Ah say we round up the town and launch an' assault.
>Applejack says, her voice is mixed between a whisper and a yell. The others seem to nod, or those who were wanting to get revenge in the first place. Then they look at you, obviously expecting a plan from you that would go without a hitch. But there isn't one, you've been thinking of plans ever since you left town and all of them end with the town taking massive losses. There's five spears for a thousand or so Ponies and maybe a dozen pieces of armour or thick clothing that could pass for armour, not to mention that the town has literally no supplies save for the occasional picnic some Ponies brought and rations from the guards to feed the entire town for one meal, just enough to get them to Canterlot. Meanwhile the Gryphons have siege weapons, swords, spears, axes, shields, rations for months maybe even a year, military grade armour, and the sheer numbers to crush the town.
No, don't be silly Applejack. We can't fight not now or ever,  Human knew that so he decided to stay behind to buy time. To buy time for us to run, maybe meet up with the Canterlot Guards along the way but to run first. I don't have a plan, there's no good plan out of this and the more we discuss this the longer we give the Gryphons to get us. I don't like this, trust me, but it's what Human decided and I trust him. Do all of you trust him?
>You mutter out, your words barely form a foundation of your idea. But over time they solidify into something more coherent yet they don't change. The coherence stems from Human, or the trust that everyone is willing to instill in that wonderful being. The group reacts as they should, Rainbow Dash falls down onto her tail, Pinkie Pie's hair deflates slightly which is a mystery to everyone, Applejack kicks a tree, Fluttershy looks like she's about to cry, Rarity is still fainted, and you look desperately at the town. One of the guard ponies from the town walk up to the six of you and makes a gesture with his head, indicating it's time to move after a two hour break. The town's population isn't led on the main drag, the one the six of you were just at, but instead an old path used by the original settlers. It was considered too rough for daily commute but was maintained, barely, incase of emergency and it is not on most maps except for the oldest few. But this makes it ideal for leaving town without being spotted and for criminals fleeing the law. Thankfully the majority of criminals don't even know of it's existence let alone how to navigate it, and if it weren't for a map neither would the group. The path is covered by trees and a few rock overhangs making being spotted by air impossible unless fires are lit at night, as their glow shines through the green leaves. But there was one point in your journey were the group had a clear view of the town from a spot known as, from the map, Iron Shaper's View, as Iron Shaper was a blacksmith who traveled further than any creature has by hoof to look for the best metal to work with, and what they saw was terrible. The town was consumed by a giant inferno, as it was clearly visible from so far away, and the Gryphons' campfires dotted along the town in a crescent moon shape, truly emphasizing the fact of how large the fire raging over the town must be as they are barely noticeable. But the town makes a clean getaway and eventually meets up with a detachment of the Canterlot Guards sent to find out why Ponyville has stopped sending reports to the Princesses who once hearing the tale from multiple different sources escort us to Canterlot...
 
...And from that point Twilight started trying to find a way to know everything, so she could never be caught unaware again. So she delved into every book, every scroll, listened to story, gathered every bit of information because if one knows the past one can predict the future. Ultimately the God of Knowledge took notice and finally sensing a suitable host offered Twilight a chance of ultimate knowledge. Of course when all of reality is stretched out before you it's hard to figure out what is real or not.